Obama Tells Keystone Foes He Will Unveil Climate Measures

While U.S. President Barack Obama has not detailed the specifics of his plan to the donors, pipeline opponents anticipate the package will include a plan from the Environmental Protection Agency to issue final rules to limit greenhouse-gas emissions from new power plants. Photographer: Andrew Harer/Bloomberg

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- With his administration under
pressure from environmentalists to reject the Keystone XL
pipeline project, President Barack Obama plans to unveil a
package of separate actions next month focused on curbing U.S.
greenhouse gas emissions.

At closed-door fundraisers held over the past few weeks,
the president has been telling Democratic party donors that he
will unveil new climate proposals in July, according to people
who have attended the events or been briefed.

Obama’s promise frequently comes in response to pleas from
donors to reject TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Keystone XL
project, a $5.3 billion pipeline that would carry tar-sands oil
from Canada to U.S. refineries. Opponents of the pipeline say it
would increase greenhouse-gas emissions by encouraging use of
the tar sands.

While Obama has not detailed the specifics of his plan to
the donors, pipeline opponents anticipate the package will
include final rules from the Environmental Protection Agency to
limit greenhouse-gas emissions from new power plants. In April,
the EPA delayed issuing the rule after the electric-power
industry said the initial proposal was unworkable. Since then,
the agency has been revising the rules, and environmental groups
are urging the EPA not to scale back its initial plan.

Power Plants

The White House plan may also include pledging to issue a
standard for limits on existing power plants, something EPA
officials have said they expect to propose in the next 18
months.

Final decisions about the specific policies included in the
president’s package are still being made, according to a person
close to the White House.

Speaking to donors in Palo Alto, California, last week,
Obama called the need for action on climate change one of the
“most important decisions” facing the country.

“We’re not going to be able to make those changes solely
through a bunch of individual decisions,” he said at a June 6
event hosted by Flipboard Chief Executive Officer Mike McCue.
“Government is going to have a role to play.”

With Congress unlikely to take up a climate bill, the plans
largely focus on actions the president can take with his
existing executive authority. White House officials have been
soliciting ideas for administrative actions that can be taken to
curb greenhouse gases.

‘Hear More’

White House officials didn’t reply to a request for
comment.

Administration aides, however, hinted earlier this week
that more action may be coming soon.

“In the coming weeks and months, you can expect to hear
more from the president on this issue,” White House environment
and energy adviser Heather Zichal said at an environmental forum
on June 11.

Climate advocates have urged the president to move quickly
and release plans to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

“If he’s serious about it, he needs to get a plan in
place,” former vice president Al Gore told listeners in a
Google video chat on June 11. “He needs to use the bully
pulpit.”

Any climate proposal released by the White House won’t be
enough to assuage activists and donors pushing Obama to reject
the Keystone XL pipeline.

No ‘Trade-off’

“There can’t be a trade-off,” Daniel Kessler, a spokesman
for the group 350.org, which is organizing the opposition to
Keystone, said in an interview. “There is not a trade that
makes sense from the physics perspective.”

The pipeline is designed to carry about 830,000 barrels a
day from Alberta and shale formations in the U.S. along a route
that would traverse six states. The administration has
previously given approval for the pipeline’s southern leg to
relieve an oil glut in Cushing, Oklahoma.

Oil and gas producers say the project will create thousands
of jobs and boost U.S. energy security.

The environmental community has mobilized in opposition to
the project, which has become a test of the president’s
commitment to curbing climate change.

The State Department is currently assessing the impacts of
the pipeline and is expected to release a final environmental
review in the coming weeks.

EPA Criticism

The draft State Department environmental impact statement
concluded the Alberta oil would find its way to customers with
or without Keystone. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
has said the department’s review wasn’t thorough enough.

After the State Department issues a final environmental
assessment, it will determine whether Keystone is in the
national interest by evaluating issues such as economic impact,
trade and relations with foreign governments. A final decision
is expected in the U.S. fall.

After Obama pledged in his inaugural address to tackle
climate change, environmentalists have grown increasingly
restive as no new efforts have been announced, various
regulations were delayed and TransCanada has predicted that
Keystone would be greenlighted.

“The good news is that President Obama has pledged to act,
and he has the power to do it,” filmmaker Robert Redford said
in an advertisement released by Natural Resources Defense
Council this week. “I just hope the president has the courage
of his convictions.”

Global emissions of carbon dioxide rose 1.4 percent in 2012
to record levels, according to a report this week by the
International Energy Agency.

“A broader climate agenda is far more important in the
grand scheme of things,” said Josh Freed, director of the Clean
Energy Program at Third Way, a Democratic-leaning policy group
in Washington, D.C. “Keystone is a battle but climate is the
war.”